Nude # 2

This is the piece that I accidently knocked over last week.
It broke right at the knees and it also knocked the head off. The piece was pretty much bone dry but I decided to try to salvage it since the breaks were so clean. I slipped and scored the hell out of the knee break hoping that if it worked I'd fix the head as well. It appeared to have worked quite well and I decided that I liked the form better without the head and I decided to leave the break mark "as is." Anyway, I really like the lines and I'm going to try a few more of these abstracted forms but make them larger.

I can't remember if I mentioned that I am also writing for another blog at work called "Coulee Region Art." Here is the link if anyone is interested. http://art.blogs.wkbt.com/
I really enjoy what little writing I do for that blog because each week it forces me to search out what is happening in art in the area in which I live. I didn't know there was so much happening in this little part of the Mid-West.

I still haven't gotten my potter's wheel built yet and I'm still waiting to get my electric kiln wired up. I'm waiting for a friend to run some 240 to the area where I have set the kiln up. But, that hasn't stopped me from getting muddy. This weekend the weather is supposed to be absolutely beautiful so I think I'll sit in my studio and start on a few more projects like the one above.

For the people that are visiting my blog, I'd like to say thanks. When I started this blog it was really for the sole purpose of creating a diary of what I'm doing and documenting things for future reference. It was also nice to be able to share what I'm doing with friends and family whom I see too little of. But thanks again to the readers. I really appreciate the emails you send.

Might as well post a couple more Raku Glaze Recipes. I still have some more Soldner glazes so here they are.

Soldner's Runny Iron Yellow Raku Glaze.
Gerstley Borate 50%
Borax 50%
Add: Red Iron Oxide 10%
Add: Rutile 3%

Soldner's White Raku Glaze.
Gerstley Borate 80%
Zircopax 20%

Bad Week In Clay

I have been working on an abstract sculpted nude for the past three weeks. It was looking good and I was only about five minutes away from sanding the last imperfection out of it. I get the Dumb Butt award for accidently knocking it over. In its leather hard stage the head broke off and the body was broken at the knees. Arrrg! Both were clean breaks. I actually tried to mend the lower half by slipping and scoring, but I'm not sure if the surgery will be a success. The head broke right at the neck and actually looks pretty good with no head and the clean break. I'll check it out tomorrow and see if it can be salvaged. If not I'll start it all over again.

Just getting back to Linda's comment about my nude torso--I started making the piece by rolling out a coil of clay that was slightly larger than the size of the torso I wanted to sculpt. I let that dry to a point where it was inflexible but still soft enough to use some carving/trimming tools to start sculpting out the form. It is a solid piece of clay but I did use a 3/4 inch drill bit to hollow out some from the bottom of the base. I drilled upward into the middle of the form approximately 3 inches. I did this because I was going to display it utilizing the dowel and a small marble base.

For those of you following my raku posts, I received a good article about Diana Pittis' raku fish sculptures. She describes her methods and also gives out a couple of the raku glazes she uses. The link is below.

http://www.ceramicartsdaily.org/feature/featuredetail/2008-10/gonefishingparttwo.aspx

Better get going.

Torso Sculpture

My first attempt at the female form. This torso is about 8 or 9 inches tall. The end result is that the form is much more abstract than originally intended, but I'm pretty happy with it. I think it would be easier to work larger. I'll have to try it again and see what I come up with. This piece isn't even bone dry yet and will be bisqued as soon as I get 240 wired to my kiln.

I haven't posted any raku glaze recipes for a while so here are a couple more.

Blue Copper Luster Raku Glaze
Gerstley Borate 82
Cornwall Stone 18
Cobalt Oxide 0.03
Copper Oxide 2.1



Buck's Revised Red Luster Raku Glaze
Borax 50
Gerstley Borate 50
Silica 17
Nepheline Syenite 15
Red Copper Oxide 10
Red Iron Oxide 10

I actually haven't done anything at the studio for the past few days because I had a couple friends visiting from Chicago. Always fun to see them but I left another sculpture project unfinished. I'll have to get back at it today.

First Plaster Cast

This is my first attempt at plaster casting. I bought a couple rolls of plaster bandages at the local hobby store, smeared vasaline all over my face, stuck some straws in my nose and applied the bandages to my face. I think it only took about 20 minutes. I can say that it would have been a lot easier if I had had some help.

I actually made the the plaster cast quite a few months ago but just got around to using it this past weekend.

I rolled out some porcelain with a rolling pin and then pressed the flat sheets into the mold. The porcelain dried overnight and then I carefully removed the mask from the plaster form. It looked pretty rough. The porcelain picked up every little detail from the goss banages so I just used some fine sandpaper to remove the unwanted texture.

I haven't bisque-fired this yet but will try to raku fire it with a clear crackle glaze when I have. One thing I forgot to think about was how I was going to display the mask once it is fired. My immediate thought was that I'd just hang it on the wall, but I hadn't planned ahead and did not put any fastening device on the back side of the mask. Oh well, next time. Can't wait to start casting some other forms.

Soldner's Copper Luster Correction

Thanks Anna from Aussie for pointing out my mistake. The corrected recipe for Soldner's Copper Luster Raku Glaze is:
Gerstley Borate 80%
Nepheline Syenite 20%
Add: Copper Oxide 2%
Add: Cobalt Oxide 1%
Add: Yellow Ochre 8%

I haven't done any firing lately but I have been trying my hand at sculpting. I decided to try taking on the human form, the torso to be more precise. I've actually made 3 small torsos this past week. Two were absolutely terrible and thrown into the slop bucket, but the third one isn't too bad. I'll have to post a photo of the one I kept tomorrow.

I don't have much raku clay left so I wedged up a bunch of porcelain. I haven't had too much luck throwing porcelain on the wheel but I'm anxious to try sculpting with it. We'll see what happens.

Thanks again to Anna for pointing out my glaze mistake.

More Raku Glaze Recipes

I know I haven't posted anything of great interest for a while. I am going to post a couple more Soldner Raku Glaze recipes. I can't believe I have so many. Anyway, here are a couple more.

Soldner's Copper Luster Raku Glaze
Gerstley Borate 80%
Nepheline Syenite 20%
Add: Copper Oxide 2%
Add: Cobalt Oxide 1%
Add: Copper Oxide 3%

Soldner's Runny Green Raku Glaze
Gerstley Borate 50%
Borax 50%
Add: Cobalt Carbonate 1%
Add: Red Iron Oxide 5%
Add: Rutile 5%

I did fire up my cast iron kiln yesterday. I used wood and then finished it off with gas. Not much in it, just a few tea bowls. I did line the inside chamber with hard fire brick and that really helped with the firing process. This past weekend while searching the internet I also learned of a homemade refractory goo made up of furnace cement and perlite. The materials are cheap and the furnace cement is rated to 2700F. Its so cheap that I'm going to mix some up and experiment with it.

I'll also try to get some photos of my latest firing posted in the next couple days.

Clay Mixer

Hey Hey Hey!

Check this out. My buddy Darrel had this Mortar Mixer parked out in the weeds somewhere on his property and kind of told me "this will mix some clay, huh?" before I could say boo he had it moved into the basement. Well, of course it went through the flood and the gas motor is toast but Darrel is going to get rid of the gas motor and hook up an electric one. And, of course, I have a lot of cleaning to do. Actually the interior is pretty clean, a bit rusty, but pretty clean. The mixing padles will take some work and maybe a modification or two but pretty soon this puppy will be mixing some clay.

The basement is looking better each day. We've got half of it pretty much done and have even started moving stuff back into it. Not only the clay mixer but even have the electric kiln moved into place and ready to be wired up.

Due to this massive cleanup project I haven't thrown any pots or made anything out of clay in months. Hopefully this weekend I can at least fire some pots and maybe soon I can get muddy again. Better get going, too much to do and never enough time to do it all.

More Shoveling

Mud, Mud, and more Mud, and still more mud to shovel. This is what I shoveled yesterday after work. This stall is where I plan on putting my electric kiln once it dries up and I do a little more cleaning. Hopefully I'll get it moved in this weekend and have it wired up and ready to fire by the following weekend. So....if people have been wondering why I haven't been making pots, this is why.

Some other notes, thoughts...
The Viroqua Empty Bowls Project is coming up in about a month. I'll post more info when I get it. Hopefully I'll be able to work in someone elses' studio to crank out some bowls. Must get on that right away.

Another upcoming project will be a new blog, in addition to this one. I have been asked to start blogging about "Arts In The Coulee" (the coulee region where I live). I was thinking about featuring an artist or exhibit each week and post artworthy news and events as they pop up. Still getting all the details but stay tuned for the launch.

The only other thing to say is that I must try firing a small brick kiln this weekend that a little girl named Natalie stacked up. I'll have a post dedicated to that pretty quick. I'm pretty excited about getting my bisque kiln into operation. Other than that I'll just keep shoveling.

More Raku Glaze Recipes

Just a few more Raku glaze recipes.

Soldner's Flat Black Raku Glaze
Gerstley Borate 50%
Borax 50%
Add: Cobalt Carbonate 2%
Add: Red Iron Oxide 10%
Add: Rutile 10%

Soldner's Glass Red Raku Glaze
Gerstley Borate 50%
Borax 50%
Add: Red Iron Oxide 10%
Add: Copper Carbonate 5%

Soldner's Lava Raku Glaze
EPK 30%
Silica 20%
Soda Ash 50%

Its going to be another nice weekend so I'm planning on doing another wood firing. Last week when I was reading Clayart one of the topics was hillside kilns. I had remembered somebody telling me about a "coffin kiln." I think I'm going to try building one of these, a small kiln to fire some raku teabowls. Not sure how I'm going to build it yet. Will just have to dive into the project and get the fire lit. Will post photos next week.

Cast Iron Kiln

Well, here she is in action--My cast iron wood burning kiln.

Looks good, but unfortunately the kiln did not reach temperature. Not a failure though. I learned lots.

First thing and perhaps the most important for me is that if I'm stoking the fire, I'm not doing it on my knees or bending over. I'm going to add another layer of cinder block to the base of this foundation and raise it up.

Another thing is that this kiln is too tight. By that I mean it didn't have enough air or draft. First of all I need to take a piece off the back of my door. The damper works great but there is a piece of metal that restricts airflow. With the back piece removed you'll be able to see right through the four holes and right into the fire box.

Perhaps most important of all I need to figure out how to put a mouse hole into the firebox floor. I needed air hitting the ember pile during this firing.

I only fired 4 teabowls in this test run. They were placed on a round kiln shelf supported by three fire brick. This really reduced the size of my firebox. There was one inch of clearance between the tops of the tea bowls and my fiber board roof. I also used a couple firebrick as a grate system to hlod the wood up off the floor.

When I rebuild this kiln I am putting the ware chamber above the whole firebox. I am thinking about making a small fiber-lined chamber and setting that over the round portion of the firebox. I am also going to stack brick around the exterior of the cast iron firebox because it puts out way too much heat. Looking for some suggestions. Help Wanted.

New Kiln Project

Check this out. All kinds of new stuff for my wood burning kiln building project. One of my friends gave me a piece to an old coal burning furnace. Its cast iron, pretty thick and has a nice door. I am going to use this piece as it sits now. It is actually upside down from its original design but it looked to me to be a perfect fit for a small beehive type updraft kiln.

Plans are to use a layer of fine grog on top of the cinder block, level it out and then place a layer of medium duty hard fire brick on top of that for the floor of the kiln.

Next is to place the cast iron fire box on top of that. Not sure how I'll proceed after that. I'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants with excitement. I'm sure the cast iron will radiate a lot of painful heat so I'll probably layer up some red common brick around the exterior.

Not sure How I'll stack up the kiln ware chamber yet but I'll probably use a roof made of fiber.

My buddy also found some stainless steel pipe that will probably make good chimney material but I won't be using this big piece on this project. Better get to building. Weather is great today. Hope to fire tomorrow or Monday. Gotta run.

Soldner's Copper Red Luster Raku Glaze

Soldner's Copper Red Luster Raku Glaze

Gerstley Borate 80%
Nepheline Syenite 20%
Add: Cobalt Oxide 1%
Add: Copper Oxide 3%

Raku Crawl Glaze

I've been looking for a crawling raku glaze and this one was just recently posted on Clayart, although it is actually a cone 05 glaze from SDSU called San Diego State University Crawl. I'm going to try it this weekend in my wood kiln and will post a photo next week.

47 Gerstley Borate
31 Magnesium Carbonate
19 EPK
4 Borax


According to the person that posted the recipe, "The lower you fire it the more crusty it is (cone 07 or 06) and it is called "Lichen" at that point. And as you go higher it will melt more andbecome a "Crawl" glaze (05) and higher it will be a "Bead" glaze."

Wood Fired Raku Tea Bowl

Here is one of the bowls from my last firing. The interior is glazed with Soldner's Clear and the exterior with Hawaiian Blue.

The interior has really cool light blue speckles in it. Don't know where they came from but they certainly add a lot to the bowl.

The exterior is a dry matt surface with subtly changing hues of blue. Normally in my gas fired fiber-lined raku kiln this glaze comes out a deep glossy blue.

Wood Fired Raku Kiln

Well, I finally built my brick raku kiln and fired it up this past Saturday. I only fired four tea bowls but the main purpose was just to get the kiln built and learn about kiln design and the science of firing. No doublt I learned a lot, but I still have a lot of learning left.

I started with sixty hard fire brick, 10 soft insulating brick and about 50 red common brick. Inside dimensions were 13-1/2 inches wide and 16-1/2 inches tall. I had a small mouse hole that ran from front to back and 2 additional air holes on each side of the front of the kiln. For the roof I used a piece of 2-1/2 inch fiber board and used 4 soft brick to form a square exit flue in the back top portion of the kiln.

I was going to preheat the kiln with propane but found out at the last minute that both my propane tanks were empty so I started with a little bit of wood and some gas. I think I could have saved 3 hours of time had I preheated with propane. It takes a heck of a lot of time to heat those hard bricks and during this time, inbetween stoking, I decided to stack my red common brick around the outside of the kiln. This turned out to be a great idea as the exterior of this kiln, only one firebrick thick, became uncomfortably Hot. The second layer of brick really helped.

Another thing I learned was that a chimney really helps create draft and heat. Three hours into the firing I started to hear the slight roar of the fire. To see what would happen I stacked 3 more layers of brick on the chimney. Within minutes flame was jamming up and out of the chimney creating good draft and a nice roaring sound. I swear I could feel it as well as hear it. The addition of the chimney made it much easier to judge when to stoke more wood. When the flame and roar started to wane, it was time to add another piece of wood. You could actually determine when to stoke just by listening to the fire.

I also decided to experiment with a door in front of the stoke hole. I used a piece of broken kiln shelf. I learned quickly that seconday air holes are a must, but for this kiln a door is not neccessary.

I'm not sure if my mouse hole was designed properly as I frequently used a ram-rod and pushed it through the length of the kiln to keep air flowing through the embers. Will have to do some more research on that.

I used all kinds of different wood to fire this kiln. Some was cheap pine from wooden crates, some was old treated lumber from a deck, and some was a mix of good hardwood scraps from a cabinet shop. The wood was all cut into approximately 20 inch pieces and split into 1 to 2 inch widths. The kind of wood didn't seem to make much difference but the size did--the smaller width the better.

All in all it wa a good firing and a great learning experience. Got so fired up that I have stacked up another mini kiln of a different design. Need about 40 more brick to finish the chimney but hope to fire it this weekend. Stay tuned.

More Soldner Raku Glaze Recipes

Soldner's Dry Pink Raku Glaze
Gerstley Borate 80%
Tin Oxide 20%

Soldner's Curdle Blue Raku Glaze
Gerstley Borate 50%
Borax 50%
Add: Cobalt Carbonate 0.33%
Add: Rutile 3%

Soldner's Copper Red Luster Raku Glaze
Gerstley Borate 80%
Nepheline Syenite 20%
Add: Cobalt Oxide 1%
Add: Copper Oxide 3%

My Studio

Well, this is it. Doesn't look like much but it has a lot of character. It also doesn't help that the picture was taken during our winter thaw, last April.

Its a nice little place about 10 miles from my house and about 10 miles from the city of La Crosse, situated out in a wooded coulee that overlooks a nice trout stream.

The building itself is quite large and used to be a woodworking shop that built everything from tables and chairs to cabinetes. My studio is the "Log Cabin Gifts" gift shop area. In the back is a mini lumber mill with all kinds big machinery that used to cut and mill big trees. All in all its a really interesting place and a perfect environment for a potter.

Cleaned and Sealed

The studio does have a lot of natural light, although the windows could use a good washing. The studio already had a nice concrete floor but I wanted to seal it to make future clean ups easier. It was bone dry and sucked up three coats of Thompson Water sealer.

There is a cast iron wood stove in the corner. It actually came off a train caboose. Will provide some good heat in the winter but I think the owner of the building is going to put in some better heating.

Still lots to do but it will be a fun on-going project.

Pots On The Rack

Just a few of my pots. I have about a dozen biqued tea bowls. I'll be firing these in my wood fired raku kiln. Still hoping to do that in the next few days but it probably won't happen till Saturday.

I also have some high-fired stoneware coffee mugs that I fired in a gas kiln at Viterbo University. I think I've already posted individual photos of the mugs on my flickr
site.

The platters on the lower shelf were all made using slabs of clay and wooden forms that I made. Its a terra cotta clay body and I'll probably just use a simple underglaze decoration around the edges and then use a clear glaze over that.

Soldner Raku Glaze Recipes

I don't know where I collected all my "Soldner" raku glaze recipes from, but I sure have a lot attributed to him. Here are the first few on my list.

Soldner Base Clear Raku Glaze
Gerstley Borate 50%
Borax 50%

Soldner Bisque Slip--Halo
Gerstley Borate 14%
EPK 57%
Flint 29%

Soldner Red Raku Glaze
Gerstley Borate 50%
Borax 50%
Add: Copper Carbonate 10%
Add: Rutile 10%

I finally did stack my brick this past week. I've made a nice little wood-fire raku kiln. I was hoping to fire it Sunday but figured I didn't have enough wood to finish the firing. I collected some more wood that day and Monday morning but got caught in a serious Thunderstorm about 11:00am. Now its back to work. Will fire and post some photos as soon as possible.